Help

We’re based in Rayners Lane in Harrow, Middlesex. To find us we’re located on Imperial Drive, a few doors away from Rayners Lane Library and just opposite the large Imperial House commercial building where Ladbrokes headquarters are. Closest tube stations are Rayners Lane (Piccadilly line) and North Harrow (Metropolitan line). Buses on route in the area are: 398, H9, H12, H10 and H11. click to view our contact page

What are your opening times?

We’re open Monday to Friday from 9.00am to 6.00pm. We also occasionally open on Saturday from 10.30am to 5.00pm, please contact us a day before to check our availability. You’re more than welcome to visit us at any time during these hours, but we always recommend to arrange an appointment beforehand so we can offer a better consultation.

How can I order?

Give us a ring, drop in to our shop or send us an e-mail and we will discuss your requirements with you. It’s always best to provide as much information as you can about what you need. If you’re not sure about the details or whether we can help, why not visit our Our Service section. This gives you details of the types products we print, the sort of materials we normally use and the quantities we usually run. It will also give you an idea of how long a job will take to complete. Lead times can vary from 1 day to 14 days depending on what needs to be done. Then there’s the cost. We will always aim to provide an instant quote or estimate where possible, but usually you’ll be given answer within a day of enquiring.

What do you need from me?

Tell us about the type of job it is, whether it’s business cards, leaflets, or even something slightly different. We offer standard products of a set size, printed on a recommended paper or card, and produced to set quantities. They give you the best value and realistic turnaround times from point of order. For items which are bespoke let us know about the size, material, colour scheme, any special finishes needed (i.e. folding, gluing, numbering, etc) and the number of copies. We’ll do our very best to provide the most suitable solution at the most competitive price!

Artwork (Design) For The Order

We can produce your order from an idea to the finished article. If you need us to create the design and layout for a printed job (referred to as “artwork”) give us all the information such as the text and images and let our team do the rest. Depending on the work involved we’ll provide you an estimate of the cost. Once work begins you will then be shown proofs of your job until you’re happy with the results and then we can put it into print. To find out more about our design service please visit our section on “Graphic Design”.

If you want to provide us with your own design you just need to make sure that you meet certain requirements we have before it can be used for printing. Follow our guidelines given in our “artwork supply” section or contact us for more details.

Payment For Orders

Pay with cash, by cheque (made to Ability Printing) or by debit / credit card. We generally take full payment at the time of ordering. If you order frequently from us we can accept deposits in advance with the balance paid upon collection of goods or just prior to despatch if delivery is required. Account facilities can be arranged, subject to terms and conditions. Please note that certain printed items are exempt from VAT and we will advise you of this when placing your order. We also accept payments via PayPal and you don’t even need to have an account to use their service.

Completed Orders

Once your order is ready we’ll contact you to arrange collection or next working day delivery, using our trusted courier service UK Mail (subject to an additional cost, the amount varies depending on the weight of the packaged goods). Same day delivery services can also be arranged if needed. Above all we want you to be totally happy with your finished job, which is why we always try to ensure your needs are met throughout the whole of the ordering process. If for any reason there are concerns when you do receive your order we will do what we can to put it right! Should you need to re-order the same items again in the future we will keep a record of the existing job to be used again for up to a period of 5 years. In many cases, any costs incurred in producing the original job won’t be charged again, unless significant alterations are required.

File Requirements

When supplying your own artwork, the most common file type we accept and process is PDF. Your PDF’s should ideally have been saved from professional graphics software such as Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop or Quark Xpress. They can be either Apple Mac or PC based. When creating your layouts in such programs you MUST ensure the following before starting:

Page sizes are set exactly at the final size of the printed job All images and graphics used are of a high resolution, usually 300dpi (dots per inch) All fonts used in the document are embedded into the PDF. Please refer to your software’s instructions for details The document needs to be set to CMYK colour mode for printing purposes. If it is already in RGB colour mode and you convert to CMYK you may notice a significant change with some of the colours used in your design. As you can only use the colours available in CMYK mode you will have to adjust your design accordingly until it looks acceptable to you.

If you have any parts of your design which go up to the edge of your page area, you will need to increase the page size by 3mm on all sides (left, right, top and bottom) and adjust your design to “spread” into this spare area. This is known as adding a “bleed” to your layout. When your job is printed with bleed applied, it will ensure that every sheet is accurately trimmed together, with no white areas of the paper/card showing through

These are the main criteria around the edges to follow and if your files meet these requirements you should get the best results from your printing. We will always check your files before going to print, but remember that any adjustments you need to do may cause delays to your order if you have a tight deadline.

Unfortunately documents created in Word, Excel and PowerPoint are only really suitable for our document printing service but NOT for high quality printing such as digital or litho. These programs don’t offer the same facilities as the graphics applications listed above, so you won’t achieve the level of professional results that they can deliver. We can however access Office documents to extract any content needed to create layouts for you, as part of our design service.Use Of Images And Graphics

As well as making sure your images are high quality for your designs, you be also aware of your right to use them. Unless you have created the graphics or taken the images yourself, you must be sure you have the creator’s permission to use them for yourself. Copyright is an important issue and we cannot be held responsible for any mis-use of content that doesn’t belong to you. This is especially the case with images and maps found on the internet through search engines such as Google.

Sending Artwork / Digital Content

You can e-mail your files to info@abilityprinting.co.uk provided they don’t exceed a combined size of 20Mb. For larger files we recommend the use of free file transfer services such as www.wetransfer.com or www.mailbigfile.com . You can use their free services to send large files to anyone by following their simple instructions (subject to size restrictions). If you prefer you can always pop your files on a CD / DVD or USB Flash drive and send it in the post.